the Sniper and the Flame Alchemist
by Ira's sorrow
Summary: this is the story of Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang's relationship. plots will be messed up. probably going to be rewritten latter. please read and tell me what you think
1. Chapter 1

The Sniper and the flame alchemist

Chapter one: a new mother

It was a cold December day. Clouds swirled chaotically in the pale blue sky hinting at snow in the night that's was collapsing into central. The graveyard was almost empty. People hurried by griping there coats around the with snuggly gloved fingers as the rushed past the small graveyard on their way to home. Every one was moving constantly, trying to break through the cold. Even the homeless children in the alleys blew on their chaffed hands and snuggled down deeper into their piles on rags, shaking out there hands periodically. The only person who didn't move at all was a black haired child how couldn't be older that six. He stood next to a tall black haired woman who was smoothly pulling on a pair of knitted gloves but his eyes we fixed on the fresh dirt that marked a new grave. This was not the first time the child had stood before a grave. A year earlier his father had died in a carpentry accident and his mother had stood beside him in front of the grave as the coffin was lowered into it. He had asked frantically where his father was going and she had explained to him in her calm soothing that his father was dead and that he was going to move on to heaven he had turned to the grave an tried to under stand. At the time he didn't know what heaven was but the way his mother said it made him think that it was a good place and that his father would be happy there. He couldn't under stand why the other people at the funeral looked so sad if his father was going to heaven. Now it was his mother who lay in the ground at his feet she had been murdered by a drunken man who had gotten his hands on a gun. As he stood in the piercing cold he tried to replicate the calm aura his mother had radiated at his father's funeral. But his face has too sharp and fixed too be calm he wanted to ask the woman at his side if his mother was going to go to heaven but he was sure she would laugh at him. He had never known his aunt very well and he did not want to live with her.

"Roy, how long are you going to stand there, we have to leave now so we can get home before dark" the woman said awkwardly patting his scruffy mop of straight black hair she was not very old herself, only just shy of 19 and she had no idea how to take care of child who had just become an orphan but she was his only living relative. Roy looked up at her and nodded sharper "I'm ready to go" he said quietly "Already?" she asked that a child would be so ready to leave his mother behind. "She is going to heaven so we shouldn't be sad for her" Roy said looking expectantly at her "Maybe see is maybe she isn't but she is going to rise higher than any living person can go and she is going to see your father again" the black haired woman said, flustered " any way lets go before you freeze the sun is almost down and will get colder then" she continued leading him away from the grave, though the low wrought iron gate and out onto the street.

As they hurried though the darkening streets of central snow flakes began to sprinkle down and by the time they got to the small apartment that Roy would be living in from now on snow was pouring down into the dark empty streets showing it's self only when it passed through the humble yellow beam of a street light. Roy stumbled into the front hall and blinked sleepily as the woman led him up the wooden stairs to her apartment door. "Stay right here okay Roy?" the woman said as she opened the door revealing a dark room with the bulky shapes of a table and a fireplace inside. " Yes Chris" Roy said watching as the woman disappeared into the apartment and emerged with a large white towel, which she set on the ground. "Need help taking off your coat" Chris said a Roy sluggishly unbuttoned his black jacket. He nodded sloppily and she slipped the coat over his head then see pulled his snow covered boots, leaving them out in the hall with the coat. Scooping up the towel Chris rubbed Roy's head down to keep the snow from melting in it and dripping all over every thing. Roy squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head like a dog as she toweled him. "Hold still" Chris said and Roy compiled though his eyes were still shut tightly "I'm not going to hurt you" Chris said removing the towel from Roy's damp hair. Tentatively Roy opened his eyes "Rawr!" Chris said making a face. Roy jumped back in surprise and hit a wall "come on" Chris said, walking into the apartment " I'm your mother from now on so don't be afraid of me, okay?" Chris said "yes mother" Roy said following her into the apartment, his eyes drooping "Let's figure out where you're sleeping" Chris said, seeing that Roy was asleep on his feet.

A/N: this probably going to be the hardest story I've ever written but it is also some thing I've really wanted to write for a few months. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a tangled mess of plot bunnies. I meant to do this mostly from Riza's POV. But I'm going to start with Roy because his early life is a lot easier to write


	2. Chapter 2

The Sniper and the Flame Alchemist

Chapter two: Alchemy

The old house creaked constantly in the subdued wind and the tree next to it rustled softly. A girl with close cropped blonde hair turned over restlessly. It was not the familiar creaking and groaning of the wind that troubled her, but the distant sound of her father turning the pages of some dusty old book on the other side of the house, in his study. She had no clue what he was researching but it could only have a negative effect on him. She had never been close to her father but she preferred him to stay sane. "Riza," she told herself in a firm whisper "go to sleep. What your father does has nothing to do with you" this was true too, though she still would have preferred not to live with her father. In the last month she had spoken to her father once, and that was only a brief exchange of words as she told him that she needed more soap. Their relationship was very simple, she told him if she need something and he left her alone. It was up to her to educate herself, make herself food and do her own laundry. She didn't even go to school and she didn't think her father noticed instead she used the vast collection of books in the creaky library to learn what she thought she needed to know. The near by town probably didn't even know she existed and she only had a faint idea there was a town near by. Sighing she mental commanded herself to go to sleep again, with out success. In an hour, when the wind stopped and the air cooled off, Riza drifted off to sleep with out even knowing it herself.

The next morning the air warmed again before the sun peeked above the tree line. It was in this pre-dawn period that Riza tumbled out off bed a shuffled down the hall out side her room till she got to the library door. Pushing it open she peaked inside to see if her father was there. He wasn't so she stepped inside and padded into the section of the selves that contained basic math books. The dust clung to her bear feet as she walked and she sneezed loudly as she sat down at the table on which she had left her small selection of algebra books the night before. Sitting down, she flipped the first book on the stack open and began to read. Before long the slow, pain stacking intake of information saturated her mind and she didn't notice when the door creaked open at nine thirty. "Happy tenth birth day Riza" some one said from beside her. She turned sharply in the sold wooden chair and saw that her father was standing next to her. "I'm 13 father," she said closing her book "why are you here?" she continued. "I wanted to warn you that an apprentice in coming here at noon" her father said turning to go "that's all?" she asked surprised that her father would talk to her about such a trivial thing he had had apprentices before and had never told her about them before they arrived. Her father had already left though and her words echoed in the huge room. Sighing, as she often did, she close the book knowing that there was no way she was going to be able to concentrate now. Riza got up and crossed the room to the more expansive history section and pulled a random book down from bookcase. It turned out to be mostly about Alchemy so she shoved it back in with the other black marked books and selected a book that her father hadn't marked with black tape. This book turned out to be about the evolution of guns. Riza turned page after page unaware that the hours were slipping by. She turned a page off the small blue cloth bound book just before noon to see only blank paper. Realizing she'd finished the book, she tucked it back on to the shelf and straightened up rubbing off her pajama pants. She realized she'd better change into day cloths before the new apprentice got here. She headed back to the doors of the library and walked back to her room. Once she was inside she shed her pajama and changed into a non-descript pair of jeans and a black tank top. As she was casting around in her closet for a sweater she heard the noise of a car out side and ran to the window excited to see the apprentice her father had wanted to warn her about. the car that pulled up in the dirt drive way was a deep purple and some of the paint was coming off . A boy who looked to be a little bit older than her stepped out off the car and a woman's voice cared up to the window she was peering out off "don't miss me too much Roy-boy" "I won't mom" the boy said leaning back into the car to give the woman inside a hug. Then he walked to the front door step and Riza leaned even further out of the window to see him. The beaten up purple car pulled away and the black haired boy waved to it till it was out of sight. The boy turned to the door and pause for a moment then he picked up the knocker and let it bang down on the door. A moment latter Riza heard her father clattering down the stairs and she receded back to the library.

A/N I know this has a lot of typos but I am probably going to re-write this later because I'm sure to screw up. This probably doesn't seem it but it is very hard to write. Also I'd like to say that I'm going to mess around with the plot a lot from now on. I would really, really like it if people would review and tell me what I'm doing wrong because this story is stressing me out a little I'm not sure where it's going


	3. Chapter 3

The Sniper and the Flame Alchemist

Chapter there: books

A few weeks pasted as they normally would and Riza went though the motions of her daily routine. Get up, go to the library and study an till the sun rose (some times for longer because she lost track of time), take short shower to re awaken herself, make breakfast and return to the library after changing into day cloths then study and till the sun set at which point she made her self dinner and took a bath if she thought she needed one finally she went to bed and tried to sleep. She was spending more and more time awake every night probably because her father was also staying up later and later in pursuit of some Alchemical secret for which he scurried from the library to his study and back again. She was worried about her father even though she hardly knew him; she hardly knew any one in fact except for books. She didn't even know what her mother had looked like even though she must have been old enough that she should remember because it was her mother who taught her to read ands write.

After a while Riza simply stopped sleeping at least not purposefully. She stayed up late reading book she had taken from the library by the light off an oil lamp. One morning she woke up on her bed with an open book half over her face. The lamp on her bedside table had been blown out but if it was her doing she certainly didn't remember it. "Convenient wind" Riza muttered sliding out off bed and gathering up the books she had been reading last night. Most off them were math and history books but she also had a science textbook and a strange little book on mechanics.

She walked down the hall and pushed the library boor open putting her eye to it she checked that no one was inside then she shouldered the door the rest of the way open and pushed it shut again with the back off her leg once she was inside. Yawning, Riza walked down the familiar rows of bookcases to the math section she dumped the books she hadn't finished yet down on the table she always sat at and walked down the shelf shoving books backing in where they belonged since the expansive science section was right next to her she pushed the science text book back in with its fellows. Riza was about to head over to the history shelves to put away the remaining books when she heard the breeze that could only come from an open window. She set her three history books down on the table and walked over to the open window. Her father never opened the windows, which was why it was so dusty in there. The only person who could have opened this was the new apprentice. "Good for him" Riza muttered turning away from the window. The cold air was starting to give her a headache but she didn't want to the close the window yet. It would give the library a chance to air out. Riza rubbed her head, which was now starting to pound as she scooped up her books again and shuffled over to the history shelves.

"Hey. Who are you?" light was in her eyes and she couldn't remember lying down but she could feel the worn floorboards pressing into her back. She tried prying her eyes open again but the were burning hot and grainy. "Are you ok?" the voice over her became more urgent and some one started shaking her shoulder she groaned and dragged her eyelids up. At first every thing was blurry and Riza blinked a few times. Finally she realized that she was looking up at a boy with black hair and eyes. She jerked herself up on one elbow and muttered "I'm fine" "why are you here?" the boy with black hair asked his voice becoming smooth again. "I'm Berthold Hawkeye's daughter. Who are you?" she said decisively "I'm master Hawkeye's apprentice," the boy said dismissively standing up "he never mentioned having a daughter" "he wouldn't" Riza replied. "Why not?" the black haired boy asked offering her a hand. "We aren't really close" she said grabbing his hand gratefully and hauling her self up "what's your name than and why are you in the library?" "It's Riza Hawkeye and I'm here to study why are you here" Riza replied aggressively "I'm looking for a couple extra books on Alchemy" he said passively "do you know any good ones?" Riza's momentary anger faded and was replaced by shyness "no" she said and rushed off to the table here she had left the books she hadn't finished. Scooping them up she left the library and returned to the safety of her room. "great now I can't even hang around the library anymore" Riza muttered picking up the mechanics book.

A/N: that was a really short chapter and I'm not sure how well it turned out but I think this is it's natural ending so I'm going to end it here I'm really tired and the computer is making annoying noise. This sucks. Any way it would really make my day if you reviewed so please do!


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